Garden Centre

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Winter Wonderland of Shrubs

Assuming that you’ve planned ahead, your garden should be looking something like mine – filled with flowers, scent and colour.

No?

Well I can probably help you – what I’ve got in bloom right now is Witch Hazel Latin name Hamamelis with it’s odd spidery yellow petals, and which will continue to flower until mid January. Because this is a heavily scented plant, I cut long flowering stems and put them in a tall vase so that their spring-like scent can cut through the dusty aromas of central heating and woolly jumpers.

Both Viburnum farreri and Viburnum tinus are in fine form: farreri has clusters of small pink flowers from December to early February which are lightly scented while tinus offers pink flower buds that become miniscule star-shaped white flowers, followed by small dark blue-black fruits which appear when the flowers go over around March – both are hardy and easy to grow. Excellent for decorating table settings.

My old favourite Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum in Latin) is a classic – the clear yellow flowers are guaranteed to appear in December and remain until March and in a vase with Witch Hazel, make a blaze of colour that looks like you flew it in from the Caribbean in a private jet.

Labels: christmas floral decorations, winter flowers, winter shrubs

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:37 AM

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